Sunday, we started the day off with a snorkeling trip out of the Hilton at Waikiki. We booked the trip overnight and were not certain that the booking had been successful, so we went over to the hotel a little early to make sure we had a place on the boat. Just outside of the Hilton along the beach there was a church service going on. I could probably be convinced to go to church more frequently if the services were held on a beach! We passed the tent and boarded the catamaran. We were given a quick safety briefing by Dustin and Brad, then we were off to the snorkel site. It only took about 10 minutes to make it site and once we arrived we geared up with our snorkels and fins and jumped in. Pretty quickly we made our way to the area where the sea turtles tend to hang out and it only took a few minutes to see some. We saw probably 4 or 5 turtles in all, they came and went from the area but we also happened to see a sting ray swimming along the ocean floor as well. We also saw a variety of fish. The overall experience of snorkeling was fun, but being used to the crystal clear water of Thailand and diving down beneath the surface, I was a little underwhelmed with the depth and water clarity that we were swimming with. After about an hour all 40 or so of us went back to the boat and had sandwiches and chips for lunch and the boat cruised along the coast for about an hour before turning back to the docks.
Once we were off the boat, Tommy and I decided to stay check out Waikiki Beach since we were already here. We went into the water and even though it is one of the most famous beaches on the island, we instantly determined it is one of the worst beaches on the island. The sand is all rocky and going out into the water it is pure rocks on the bottom. We stayed for about 10 minutes and decided we would drive back over to Lanikai Beach (we were at on Thursday) because it was infinitely better than Waikiki.
On the way to Lanikai we stopped in at the University of Hawaii-Manoa and checked out the campus. It was a pretty cool campus and I have no idea who anyone who goes there gets any studying done, but it sure was beautiful. No students were around since it is summer break, but we checked out a few of the buildings nonetheless. We also went to check out the basketball arena on campus. We tried to get into the stadium, but of course all of the doors were locked. We just walked around the outside of the arena and checked out the rest of the athletic campus. The football stadium is not directly on campus, but basketball, baseball, etc are all together on campus.
After checking out the campus, we continued east to Lanikai Beach. The sand at Lanikai is a perfect powder and the water is so clear, the other beaches (especially Waikiki) do not even compare. While we were swimming around, two paddle boarders were going past near the shore, one of which was just walking with her board. I asked her if I could give it a try and she said yes. I paddled along the shore for a minute or two just to give it a shot. I didn’t fall, so that was good, but I don’t know that I would want to do that for more than a half hour or so. The sun started to drop behind the island behind us, so we went for food back at The Shack, which we went to the first time we were at Lanikai as well.
When we returned back to the apartment, we started cleaning the place back up as we were going to be leaving early in the morning and once things were in better shape, we hit up the hot tub for about an hour before it closed. It was a solid jam packed day, from being at the docks by 10 am, snorkeling, swimming at Waikiki, checking out campus, driving over to Lanikai, and finishing up at the pool.
Monday, June 5th has finally arrived. The last partial day of my 2 month long adventure. I am somewhat bummed to be finishing traveling and having to be flying home for about 10 hours, but I am also excited to be going up to the cottage, the fishing trip into Canada, and Josh Kruger's bachelor party in South Carolina. It does not seem like I have been out and about for 2 months, but when I think about it, there were a lot of things I did and a lot that I accomplished.
Tommy and I woke up really early to pack up the remainder of our things and clean up a few final things before leaving Jeremy’s awesome apartment. We dropped the key at the front desk of his apartment and headed over to the Pearl Harbor Memorial Site. We did not get tickets for the Arizona ahead of time online but we had read that if you get there early enough, that they give out same day tickets. We arrived at Pearl Harbor at 8am and went to see what was available, but the soonest we could go see the Arizona Memorial was around 2pm in the afternoon. That was not going to work for us as both Tommy and I had flights around 1pm. We walked around the area of the memorial that did not require any tickets and there was a ceremony for the Battle at Midway. We listened for a few minutes and went over to the water and saw the Arizona Memorial across the bay. We decided to keep moving since there was not much else to see without any tickets at the site.
We drove over to see Aloha Stadium, it is about a mile from Pearl Harbor. The stadium is where the Hawaii football team plays and the area also frequently hosts the NFL Pro Bowl. The stadium holds only about 50,000 fans but the seats seem to be very close to the field and it appeared that there was not a bad seat in the whole place. It is very open air, which would be great for fans and probably terrible for the kicking game. We looked up that season tickets are only $100 for the year, so I was very tempted to become a Hawaii season ticket holder and give myself an excuse to go back to Hawaii more frequently.
We went and filled up and dropped off the rental car and took the shuttle to the airport. I grabbed lunch as Tommy was going to be flying first class back to the mainland. We hung out for a little bit before I boarded my first flight to Seattle. My second flight was a red-eye to Detroit. Both flights went as planned. I caught the Michigan Flyer back to Lansing, it stopped to drop people off in Ann Arbor. It was nice to see a bit of campus really quickly. My Dad picked me up in East Lansing to drive me the final stretch home.
We are now packing up the car the head north to the family cabin with my parents and grandparents, but that is for another story.
AFTER 2 MONTHS I HAVE MADE IT HOME...
